Bureau of Land Management to replace 78-year-old Butte Creek bridge

In this June 16, 2009 photo, a 3-ton weight limit is listed for a bridge built over Butte Creek in 1935. When it was first constructed, the bridge was rated to support vehicles weighing up to 15 tons.
(Bill Husa/Staff File Photo)

OROVILLE -- An "orphaned" bridge that was constructed over Butte Creek in 1935 as part of an 800-mile- long fire road is going to be replaced.

The 78-year-old bridge was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the U.S. Forest Service as part of a project to establish a road, called Ponderosa Way, from Kern County to Shasta County.

The portion of the route that dips into Butte Creek Canyon connects Magalia to Forest Ranch by way of Doe Mill and Garland roads.

Tuesday, Bill Kuntz, program lead for engineering and recreation with the Redding office of the federal Bureau of Land Management, explained the bridge replacement project to the Butte County Board of Supervisors.

He told the panel that when it was constructed, the single-lane, 130-foot-long bridge was rated to support vehicles weighing up to 15 tons.

Kuntz said the bridge has been "modified repeatedly" over the years, but almost from the moment it was completed the question of who would be responsible for ongoing maintenance became muddled.

He said in 2001 Caltrans inspected the structure and determined it had problems that required it be repaired or replaced. It was also decided at that time to limit the bridge's carrying capacity to no more than three tons.

In 2009, the BLM accepted responsibility for the bridge.

Kuntz said the BLM recognizes the steel-truss bridge, which has a concrete deck, must be replaced.

Recently the BLM has received the funding to do the bridge replacement and also to pay for what Kuntz describes as "heavy maintenance" to both the stretch of the road leading down from Magalia and the section going up to Forest Ranch.

The maintenance, according to the BLM official, will include grading of the road, adding gravel to the roadway and replacing some undersized culverts that go under the route.

Once the bridge replacement and road repairs are completed, it will be able to handle 80,000-pound logging trucks or any size of firefighting equipment, said Kuntz.

He said the federal highways department will do the actual construction and he expects the work to begin in early summer 2015.

He explained the bridge will be closed about six months during the process and there will be no detour around the work, but even so he said the agency has talked to the people living in the canyon and all of them said they support the project.

The county is not doing any of the work, nor is it paying any part of the bill.